]]>http://www.openminds.tv/daily-ufo-headlines-61313/22195/feed0NASA robot could help produce rocket fuel on the Moonhttp://www.openminds.tv/nasa-robot-could-produce-rocket-fuel-on-the-moon-904/18463
http://www.openminds.tv/nasa-robot-could-produce-rocket-fuel-on-the-moon-904/18463#commentsTue, 29 Jan 2013 18:55:53 +0000http://www.openminds.tv/?p=18463NASA is developing a robot prototype that could assist with future missions to the Moon.

]]>NASA is developing a robot prototype that could assist with future missions to the Moon.

According to Engadget.com, NASA is developing the Regolith Advanced Surface Systems Operations Robot, or RASSOR (pronounced like “razor”), with the hopes of sustaining Moon missions by “extracting water from the lunar soil to produce air and even fuel.”

The RASSOR robot climbing a hill. (Credit: NASA)

The RASSOR’s design is based on a previous Lockheed Martin design, and features digging bucket drums at each end of the robot’s body. NASA explains that these drums rotate in opposite directions, and they perform “staggered shallow scoops that shave the soil a bit at a time rather than scoop large chunks of it all at once, the way bulldozers do on Earth.” In addition to their scooping capabilities, these drums “can act almost as legs letting the robot step and climb over obstacles.”

The robot is designed to skim lunar soil and dump it into a device that would pull water and ice out of the dirt and turn their chemicals into rocket fuel or breathing air for astronauts working on the surface. The device would be part of the lander that carries the RASSOR to the moon’s surface. So the robot would be the feeder for a lunar resource processing plant, a level of industry never before tried anywhere besides Earth.

NASA reports that ninety percent of a rocket’s mass consists of propellant. So producing these resources on the Moon would considerably reduce mission costs, especially in terms of rocket fuel.

Engineers are refining the prototype, and a RASSOR 2 should begin testing in 2014.

]]>NASA is conducting tests on a robotic hover lander that could be used on future lunar missions, or on upcoming asteroid missions.

The Huffington Post reports that the Robotic Lander Development Project at Nasa’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama has successfully completed a test of an autonomous hover lander. According to NASA, the test flight took place on June 13th, and the robotic lander “successfully flew up to 7 feet for 27 seconds, proving it can execute commands autonomously, such as hover for an extended period, control its position and orientation and land successfully.”

Future testing is planned, and NASA explains that these tests will “aid in the design and development of a new generation of small, smart, versatile robotic landers capable of performing science and exploration research on the surface of the moon or other airless bodies, including near-Earth asteroids.” Wired points out that another feature of these robot landers will be their ability to land “without the need for aero-braking and parachutes.”

A humanoid robot is the newest member of the International Space Station’s crew. The spaceshuttle Discovery delivered Robonaut, also known as R2, weeks ago, but astronauts just unpacked the new crew member on Tuesday. R2 is intended to begin serving as a helper to the astronauts aboard the space station in the coming decade. His initial testing begins in May, but for now, he is simply attached to a pedestal, waiting for his legs to arrive, which will be delivered to the International Space Station next year.

The topic of robots and artificial life was also recently mentioned by CBS News. The article pointed out that some scientists believe that artificial life is most likely what would come off a space ship if one landed on Earth. A professor of computer science at UCLA recently said, “If an extraterrestrial spaceship ever lands on Earth, I bet you that it is 99.9999999 percent likely that what exits that ship will be synthetic in nature.”